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Today was the first charity sew-in at Sewtropolis. We had originally decided to sew for the Women's Advocates shelter, but instead we sewed blocks for a family affected by the flooding in Duluth as that seemed like a more urgent need.

We sorted our scraps by color (thankfully Flaun brought plenty to share for those of us who were lacking) and made monochromatic blocks using the "slab" technique in Sunday Morning Quilts. Flaun gave us a quick demo, and we sewed and chatted away the afternoon.

By the end of the day, we had 22 twelve-inch blocks and a few big chunks, which should yield at least one quilt, if not two or more. Flaun generously offered to sew the blocks together, and is going to contact a friend of hers with a longarm to see if she will quilt it for us.

Hello Quilters! Nikol from Sewtropolis here to give you an update on where our little guild is headed! If you've missed the last couple of meetings you'll want to know that we have decided to take our group to the next level by asking people to pay to be members.

Our group started a little over 2 years ago and back then it was just a handful of women with a common interest: Modern Quilting. For our first exchange/challenge we swapped 2 1/2 inch polkadot strips. Two months later we came back with a whole variety of projects (which you can see on our Flickr page) and the rest, as they say is history.

Since then our group has grown from just a handfull to over 100 members on Facebook. Slowly but surely we are seeing more and more members show up at our monthly meetings. With more members attending we have more ideas for the group including more swaps, challenges and exchanges with Modern Quilt Guilds in other cities. Our group is also looking forward to having Jacquie Gering from Tall Grass Prairie Studios (and a member of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild) come and teach a workshop in the fall.

Which brings me to why we are taking our group to the next level and the need to collect membership dues as part of that growth. I don't know about you, but when I think of being a member of a group I think about what I want to get from the group AND what I have to offer. With the Modern Quilt Guild I want to be inspired, challenged, educated and of course socialize with people who share my love of quilting. In return, I offer my time, talent and service to the group. As the group grows there is more and more it has and will continue to have to offer me. If I want to continue to receive the benefits of the group, it will need my help in growing and at this stage that help comes in the form of funding.

Back in March 2012 the following people volunteered for the following "Executive" positions:

Since then we have had many discussions about formalizing our group and the need to charge dues in order to continue to grow. At the June meeting we decided that, starting in July, we will be collecting the following Membership dues:

July 2012 - March 2013: $25
April - March 2012: $48

The benefits to membership include (but not limited to):

reduced cost for speakers and workshops

opportunity to receive freebies involved with challenges from fabric manufacturers

priority registration for events

and more benefits as our group grows.

Dues will be spent on (but not limited to):

speaker fees

purchasing materials for donation and/or charity sewing

snacks for meetings

general office supplies

and other things as they come up.

Also at the June meeting Jennifer Madsen volunteered to act as Vice-President and manage the memberships. Her name will be listed on the Bylaws as a member of the Executive Committee. You can review a copy of the Bylaws here. We will be adopting the Bylaws and collecting dues at the July meeting.

I am very excited to see our group grow and I hope for those of you who attend the meetings - that you will continue to do so as paying members. And for those of you who haven't attended a meeting, I invite you to come check us out. There are a lot of fun things planned and I don't want you to miss out on any of it!

Membership Dues
Nikol is going to write up some bylaws for our group based on a template that she shared at the meeting. Part of those bylaws will include guidelines for members paying dues, what those dues would entitle members to and how they will be spent by the group.

How Much? We decided that our “fiscal year” would be March-March. Dues for this year (July 2012-March 2013) would be $25. We will start collecting dues at the July 19th meeting. Dues for the following year (March 2013-March 2014) will be $48 for the year.

What are benefits for members? Many benefits were discussed including, but not limited to: *reduced cost for speakers and workshops *opportunity to receive freebies involved with challenges from fabric manufacturers *priority registration for events *and a bunch of other great stuff that we haven’t even thought of yet!

How will the dues be spent? Lots of possibilities were mentioned including *speaker fees *purchasing materials for donation and/or charity sewing *snacks for meetings *general office supplies

With the addition of dues and memberships, we agreed that an additional board member would be necessary to help keep track of membership. Jen graciously volunteered to be the VP and take on this task. Yay!!

Opportunities
Nikol mentioned that the 48th & Chicago neighborhood has an annual Fall Festival that we can be involved in if we like. She suggested a quilt show. Other ideas included making quilts to sell as a fundraiser for our group.

It was suggested that we look at selling advertising space on the blog as another means of fundraising.

The Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild would like to do an exchange with us. They suggested a bento box block exchange of some kind possibly using the new Kona colors. There was some interest in going ahead with it, so Nikol will contact them to arrange the details.

We are also hoping to get more action on our blog. If you are interested in posting on the blog, contact Nikol.

For the July 19th meeting:
-Dues begin
-Bring your QuiltCon blocks! Bring 2 identical blocks that are 12.5” (12” finished) using the QuiltCon colors. One will be sent in for the challenge and the other will be used to make a quilt for our guild to donate.